Does reinstalling windows changes the efs key ?

[bukks bunny]

hello everyone.so what happened was i reinstalled windows on my old home pc and iam not able to open the encrypted files in the same pc.It says 'access denied' though iam the admin.Is there any way i could open my files.?

 

[Bill Simpson]

This page

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700811.aspx

says about half way down the page

"By far, the most frequent problem with EFS occurs when EFS encryption keys and/or recovery keys aren't archived. If keys aren't backed up, they cannot be replaced when lost. If keys cannot be used or replaced, data can be lost. If Windows is reinstalled (perhaps as the result of a disk crash) the keys are destroyed. If a user's profile is damaged, then keys are destroyed. In these, or in any other cases in which keys are damaged or lost and backup keys are unavailable, then encrypted files cannot be decrypted. The encryption keys are bound to the user account, and a new iteration of the operating system means new user accounts. A new user profile means new user keys. If keys are archived, or exported, they can be imported to a new account. If a revocation agent for the files exists, then that account can be used to recover the files. However, in many cases in which keys are destroyed, both user and revocation keys are absent and there is no backup, resulting in lost data."